J. B. Bennett & Son

Painters

J. B. Bennett & Sons (also known as John B. Bennett & Sons,
and J. B. Bennett & Sons Ltd) were a firm of painters,
interior decorators and art dealers, founded by John Brown
Bennett (c. 1810–1878). In the mid-1840s, Bennett had
worked for Hugh Bogle & Co., who from 1847 began to
advertise as 'House Painters, Paper Hangers, Gilders and
Interior Decorators to the Queen'. 1 Bogle moved to 'commodious
premises' at 50 Gordon Street in 1849, 2 and it
was from this address that Bennett began trading on his own
account in 1856–7, his former employers having moved
elsewhere in the same street. Both Bennett and Bogle styled
themselves 'decorators to the Queen'. The type of decoration
they undertook is described in a review of Bogle's work
published in 1853 (while Bennett was still in his employ):
'Some fifteen or twenty beautiful transcriptions from nature,
being imitations of wood and marble ... [and] a hall or
staircase window in stained glass ... entirely the production
of their own workmen'. 3

Bennett's jobs varied from painting a dancing teacher's ballroom in
Sauchiehall Street (1857), to sash windows in Queen Street,
serviced from his works yard at 114 Waterloo Street. 4 His firm's upward trajectory
can be traced through census returns. In 1851, he employed 50
men; three of his sons joined him in the late 1850s; by 1861,
he had 47 men and 16 boys; and in 1871, there were 'as an
average, from eighty to ninety men and boys'. On becoming an
official of the Incorporation of Wrights in 1868, Bennett had
joined the city's commercial establishment. 5

After his death in 1878, the firm (74 men and 17 boys in the 1881
Census) was headed by his sons, John Charles Bell Bennett (c.
1840–1912) 6 and Robert James Bennett (c.
1843–1916). 7 Robert was active in the Glasgow
Master Painters' Association. In 1889, he helped to draw up
'an uniform mode of measuring Painter Work', alongside the
Glasgow Institute of Architects, and he later became the
Master Painters' president. 8

The Bennetts began selling modern paintings, advertising a variety
of exhibitions from 1889 into the 1890s. These included
paintings of the Clyde estuary by W. L. Wyllie, scenes in
Morocco by J. K. Lawson, a P. & O. voyage to Australia and
etchings by D. Y. Cameron. They also showed Alma-Tadema's
Dedication to Bacchus, Rosa Bonheur's The Duel, European
porcelain and Japanese ivories. 9 In the early 1900s, they redecorated
Flowerhill Parish Church in Airdrie 10

On his death in 1916, Robert's 'particularly fine private
collection of paintings' was noted, along with his part in
organising the Buildings and Grounds Committee of the 1911
Scottish Exhibition of National History, Art and
Industry. 11 In 1924, the Gordon Street premises
were advertised to let, and the firm moved to Buchanan Street
soon after, before going into liquidation in 1938. 12

'Mackintosh Architecture' led by The Hunterian, University of Glasgow, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council; with additional support from The Monument Trust, The Pilgrim Trust, and the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art; and collaborative input from Historic Scotland and the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland.